A New Beginning
by Mistress Claudia
Summary: This is about a princess who runs away from home.
1. Part I

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Enchanted Forest characters.

A New Beginning

Once upon a time one thousand years ago there lived a king, a queen, and four princess. Now the first three princess' were perfect in every way. They had long golden hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, and they were thin. Now, the king and queen wondered about their fourth daughter. She had a darker complexion, black hair, and was not at all interested in becoming a princess. This tale is about her. Her name is Catharine. For the thousandth time they wondered if having a fourth daughter was a good thing. On the day of the christening ceremony six fairies showed up to give the baby princess Catharine a gift of their own. The first one gave her beauty. The second fairy gave her a beautiful singing voice. The third fairy made her loving. The fourth fairy made her graceful. The fifth fairy made her strong. But the sixth fairy was different. She predicted that Catharine would like to be ordered what to do or what she can't do. Her parents were not the least bit frightened about that. So the fairy gave Catharine the gift of independent thoughts. The first three years were fine. She grew up like all other normal princess' should.

Until the day when the sixth fairy showed up on Catharine's fourth birthday, did things start going wrong. First, she said that she wouldn't go to bed until she said so. When she was ten, she started having lessons to become the proper princess. She immediately informed her parents that she did not like them. They said that she would like them as she got older. When she was eleven she starting to secretly take lessons in Latin, cooking, fencing, and magic. On her sixteenth birthday she found out that she was betrothed to Prince George of the neighboring country. She was horrified. When she went for a walk in George's gardens, she found a toad. Now this was no ordinary toad because he could talk. He told her that now she had learned enough to fulfill her destiny. He told her that she would have to run away. She was to head north until she came to a shack at then end of a grove of emerald trees. So, she packed what she would need for a trip north and set out in the dead of night. She traveled for two days before she came to the grove of emerald trees.

She knocked and went in. It was dark. There she found two dragons. The first looked older, was about 80 feet long, and had purplish-blue scales. The other one was about 40 feet long and it had green and yellow scales. The older one was called Whoot and the younger one was called Kally. Now, dragons like princess' and keep them to cook and clean for them. Whoot already had a princess but Kally didn't. So Kally decided that she would like to have Catharine as a servant. Catharine loved helping Kally with chores. They soon became good friends. One time when Kally was away, three princess' dropped by to greet Catharine. They said that they were all held captive by dragons. When the youngest of the three ever tried to talk, the other two would jump on her. After they left the youngest one came back. Catharine and April, the youngest princess, became friends.

For a long time Catharine was happy. One day everything changed, Kally offered to teach Catharine dragon magic. Catharine was beside herself with joy. After she had been learning about dragon magic for two weeks, she had another surprise. The first knight came to "rescue" her. It took her two hours to get rid of him. She was very cross when he left. Then she started having about three knights every day. Finally she told Kally about the problem. Kally told Catharine not to worry. A few nights later, Kally came home to tell Catharine that they were going to have six guests for dinner. Catharine was so scared. That night she got her first experience of dragons. The dragons were having a heated discussion when one of them suddenly lost control of their fire and just missed burning Catharine. She and April got started on trying to find a spell to repel fire. It took them three weeks to get the ingredients.


	2. Part II

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Enchanted Forest characters

Part II: A Wild Adventure

Then, the day before they were going to perform the spell, a catastrophe happened. A knight came and grabbed her right out of the mouth of the cave. She started screaming and saying that the dragons would soon be upon them. He didn't care because he blindfolded and gagged Catharine. He rode for several days before taking her blindfold off. She found herself in a cave with heavy metal bars over one of the entrances. She was scared and demanded that he let her go. When he refused, she started throwing a fit. a fit. So he closed the door, which she hadn't noticed that was hidden, and they were thrown into complete darkness. Unknowningly she was bound on her ankles and, in the dark, her wrists also. They, the "knight" and a lady, then had forced her to walk. Since she couldn't see, she kept on bumping into things. Finally, they stopped and she was forced to the floor. Once more she was blindfolded. When they had taken off the blindfold, she found that she was in a tiny room with enough room to barely fit two people comfortably. She found that she was bound by her ankles, wrists, and her neck to the floor. She could barely move, let alone get up and walk. She was scared because she didn't know what they were going to do to her. She hoped that they would release her soon. Unfortunately they had other plans.

They forced her to wear a blond wig and they made her survive on bread, cheese, and water. She was so thin that she could almost slip through the manacles. Except during the night they came in and made the manacles smaller. Fortunately, she outwitted them. When they came in the morning, they told her that they were going to a secret place in a deep forest. They once again blindfolded her and they moved on. It was about dinnertime when they took off the blindfold. She was in the darkest part of a forest. They were dressed in camouflage, while they had dressed her in bright gold and pink. She had never been alone before, let alone in a forest.

There she wandered for three days until she came upon a house. She went up to the house and knocked. Unfortunately it was a wizard. Wizards hate dragons and their princess'. One look at Catharine told him that she was a dragons princess. When Catharine saw who the occupant of the house was, she ran back the way she had come because she had heard of princess' being forced into serving a wizard as a servant and as an informant. All of a sudden ...


	3. Part III

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Enchanted Forest characters

Part III: A New Discovery

All of a sudden she found herself in front of a palace. She was frightened at first but then she overcame her fear and went up to the palace. When she rang a little elf came and escorted her to the King of the Fascinating Forest, Mendabar. She had always heard about the Fascinated Forest bur had never actually been there. When she met the king she was shy. He asked how she had gotten here as best she could.

When she was done she asked if he knew hoe she could get back to Kally. She said that she had missed Kally. When he told her that he would escort her there, she was delighted because she didn't know how to get out or in. So they set off together to get Catharine back to Kally. Kally and Catharine were overjoyed to see each other. They thanked Mendabar over and over again. They invited him to stay overnight as a token of their appreciation. He accepted saying how tired he was from the walk. April came over the following day, she was so glad that Catharine was back. She said that it was awful without her. That made her feel better.

Then she asked April how she had gotten here? April said that her aunt had arranged a day to go to a village that was going to be raided that day. She was carried off by a dragon. She had wanted to go home until Catharine came. She had told Catharine that she had changed that opinion and now she didn't want to go because she would miss Catharine. Catharine told April that she had run away from home to find a dragon to take her in. She wanted to cook, serve, learn Latin, and learn magic. She said that she never wants to go back home.


End file.
